The earliest and the most severe memory loss in old age and dementia occur in recent memory and working memory. Compared to young adults, older adults exhibit deficits in working memory, an online memory mechanism that allows manipulation of a current target image amongst distracting stimuli. Remote memory or long-term is better retained. Evidence from neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies of visual working memory indicates that working memory relies on activation of the ventral temporal cortex, and top-down feedback from the prefrontal and medial temporal cortex, and the hippocampus. It has been observed that there are significant individual differences in cognitive aging among healthy cognitively intact older adults due to genetic, learning and environmental factors. Since genetic factors influence working memory performance in the aging brain and the exact underlying mechanisms are not well understood, there is a need in the art to identify genetic polymorphisms critical to the molecular foundation of learning and memory in individuals' brain processing speed and cortical responses during a working memory task.